LOS ANGELES — San Diego baseball (4-19, 1-2 WCC) led for the first five innings of its series finale with Loyola Marymount on Sunday afternoon but could not hold off a late-game surge from the Lions, falling by a narrow 5-4 margin to LMU (14-10, 2-1 WCC) at Page Stadium.
The Toreros were up 3-0 after scoring once in the second, third, and fourth frames courtesy of an RBI double from
Connor Meidroth, an RBI single from
Jack Gurevitch, and a daring dash home from third base by
Aden Howard as
Rex Watson tried to steal second.
Loyola Marymount countered with an RBI single in the bottom of the third. Two-out RBI doubles in both the sixth and seventh innings allowed the Lions to tie the score at 3-3, then pull ahead 4-3. An insurance run crossed the plate for LMU in the eighth on a sacrifice bunt, sending San Diego to the ninth trailing 5-3.
After Howard led off Sunday's final inning with a stand-up double down the right-field line, Gurevitch drove him in with a two-out RBI single to cut the deficit to 5-4, send pinch runner
Logan Reddemann to third base, and bring
Austin Smith to the plate. Smith fouled off the first two pitches he saw before missing the third one, ending a closely contested West Coast Conference contest with its tying run just 90 feet away.
Redshirt freshman right-hander
Cal Scolari started the weekend finale for the Toreros and turned in 5.1 solid innings, allowing three earned runs on six hits while walking one and striking out four.
Dallin Harrison and
Hayden Cody closed the game out on the mound for USD, turning in matching outings of 1.1 innings apiece while allowing one earned run on two hits each.
NOTABLE
- Meidroth has now notched a hit in three straight games, a span that's included two runs scored, an RBI, and a double.
- Nico Libed drew a two-out walk to extend the ninth inning before being pinch run for by Reddemann.
- Watson was 2-for-5 with a run scored and an acrobatic leaping catch at the right-field wall in the bottom of the fifth.
UP NEXT
The Toreros are back in action this Tuesday evening, when they travel to Cal State Fullerton for a midweek non-conference matchup with the Titans. First pitch at Goodwin Field is set for 6:00 p.m.
